100 Students Competing in Steel City Sales Challenge

The Palumbo-Donahue School of Business is hosting its annual Steel City Sales Challenge in which students from regional universities showcase their selling skills in a professional sales encounter.

The virtual competition will take place Saturday, Oct. 23, and Sunday, Oct. 24. To mark its five-year anniversary, the school is offering $15,000 in cash and prizes to the winners.

“The 5th Annual Steel City Sales Challenge is a great event for the Professional Selling program within the Marketing and Management Department,” said Dr. Ryan Luchs, chair of management and marketing in the business school. “The competition is quickly becoming a top event in the region, offering $15,000 in prizes and attracting nearly 100 students from universities across the nation.”

Fifty students from 15 universities are participating in the role-play competition in which students will do 15-minute simulated introductory sales calls. The top performing students will compete in a final round for more than $10,000 in prizes.

Nearly 80 students from the same 15 universities are also competing in an elevator pitch competition. They submitted 60-second video pitches on why Steel Dynamics, the competition’s main sponsor, should hire them as their next sales representative. The finalists will compete for nearly $5,000 in cash prizes.

The Center for Leadership in Professional Selling offers simulation labs that provide students a professional space with a variety of settings to role-play their sales approaches.

The Steel City Sales Challenge is sponsored by Steel Dynamics and is just one of the ways Duquesne’s horizon-expanding education offers students a new perspective of what is possible in their field.

For more information, email Luchs.